Various lighting assemblies use lenses in order to shape and direct light in a variety of directions and shapes. Some lighting assemblies can be used as beacons to direct aircraft into a landing area or zone. These types of lighting assemblies frequently have large and heavy light sources which require correspondingly large and heavy lenses to direct the light toward aircraft to operate as the beacon for the aircraft. Other lighting assemblies can use lenses to direct light for a variety of purposes, such as illumination, distance measurement (e.g., LIDAR), or the like.
Improvements in some lighting assemblies may seek to reduce the size and weight of the light sources, but a need still exists for lenses that are able to shape and direct light from the light sources. The lighting assemblies and lenses decrease in size, the ability to manufacture sufficiently small lenses that also can shape and direct the light across a large area to operate as an aircraft beacon, to illuminate an area, to measure distances, etc., becomes increasingly difficult.